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Thursday, October 13, 2011

So about Melissa...

(I'm talking about the show Secret Circle on the CW and will spoiling the hell out of the first 4 episodes. Tread accordingly.)

Okay so I finally gave into the teen fantasy trend and started watching Secret Circle on the CW. The basic premise is that we have a group of five kids who are witches/warlocks, powers inherited through their bloodlines. However they are missing their sixth. In comes Cassie.

After the death of her mother Cassie moves back to the small town that her mother grew up in to live with her grandmother. The other five kids learn that Cassie is the sixth and with her they can really get things going. But damn they may as well had only made it five in total.

You have Cassie who is the main character who is currently the "reluctant one that wants to help but isn't sure what to do" type. She doesn't learn about her powers until she returns to her mother's hometown. So of course there is the usual shock and all that and getting used to things.

Next you have Diana who seems to be the de facto "leader" of the group. On the outside she seems like a sweet girl but its pretty obvious that underneath that is a control freak who wants to keep everything nice, neat, and in order. Well nice, neat, and in HER order. Things are probably going to get ugly once the love triangle comes to a head.

Cassie likes Diana's boyfriend. Diana'd boyfriend like Cassie. This is the setup for Adam the "tortured soul". He has this Adam Lambert look about him (that's just an observation not a jab) and its clear from get go that he has likes Cassie. There is no way in hell that this will be allowed to just rest.

Next we have out "male jerk" character. Nick. He's a damaged loner type that doesn't seem to mesh well with the others. Its not that he hostile or anything, just seems like he doesn't fit in. As for being a jerk he has no problem hurting or mistreating others to get what he wants.

Our "female jerk" is Faye. She's the rebel hell cat that is clearly interested in what she stands to gain out of a situation. But unlike Nick she doesn't seem to have a problem with getting hostile to get what she wants.

And finally we have Melissa. And this is where my complaints start.

She's a member of the circle. At first she is pretty much Faye's lackey but then takes on being Nick's fuck buddy as a dual class (see what I did there?). Nick and Faye pretty much have no problem whatsoever talking down to her, using her for what they want (obedience and sex). That's pretty much it. Well she has like a moment with each where she stands up for herself but that moment quickly fades and falls right back into place be it on her knees or on her back. (And I know that sounds cold but frankly that's how she is treated in this show so far.)

Out of the main six almost none of her life is shown. We've seen the homes of Faye, Diana, Cassie, and Nick while Adam so far has been shown often working at his dad's restaurant. Melissa so far has only been shown at school, the hideout, Adam's dad restaurant, and Nick's bedroom.

My next complaint was pointed out to me by a man by the handle Sparky in the Fangs for the Fantasy (weekly live chat over at Talk Shoe, Monday 6pm EST). Here is a promo picture of the cast. Can you tell me who is missing? I'll bet you can tell even though I haven't given physical descriptions of the characters yet. That's right Melissa's not there and that's a frigging promo pic. How can you have a promo pic of only 5 of the main 6 characters? Sparky also offers this as evidence that she is a woman of color. I've tried to look that up but the most I could solidly find was that she is "mixed" and a few places that suspect she is Italian/African American.

And speaking of them being the main characters I have one last problem. One of points that is regularly stressed throughout the show is that 16 years ago something bad happened in their town and of these six kids each of them lost parents. Cassie's mother is killed in the first episode so we can deduce that her father was killed in the accident. Cassie's mother was killed by Diana's dad in the first episode so we can deduce Diana lost her mother. Diana's father is in regular contact with Faye's mother (who is the principal of the high school they all go to) so we can deduce her mother died. As I said Adam is often shown at his dad's restaurant so we can safely say his mother is dead. It is explicitly stated that both of Nick's parents were killed (Faye directly reminds Melissa in ep. 3 or 4, "We each lost one parent, Nick lost both. Double the damage."). My question to you is, using only info from the four episodes that have been shown so far (meaning no cheating looking at the books) which one of Melissa's parents was killed 16 years ago? We know that one of them had to have died in that past accident (a fire) and one had to have survived at least that fire (they may have been killed later like Cassie's mom perhaps).

I'm really hoping that she isn't just there for the racial diversity street cred. Maybe something big happens and her character drastically changes or something. Whatever the case if indeed this is how they are treating women of color (there is another, who was introduced shortly before being tossed over a balcony during one of Faye's hissy fits) I think they are just better off not even bringing men of color into the picture.

2 comments:

Sparky
said...

We have actually seen every parent on screen in Secret Circle - Cassie's mother, Diana's dad, Faye's mother, Adam's father. They're all characters - Diana's dad and Faye's mothers are even plotting something (and Adam's dad plotting to stop it) they're not only there but have a plot place!

But Melissa? No home, no parents, no hobbies outside Faye & Nick, no storylines, no personality aaaaand - NO PICTURE ON THE PROMOTIONAL ADVERT!

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About Me

Who am I you ask? The name's Danny and I'm just a pro-MRA guy that's trying to build his own masculinity and his own place in this world and I'm sharing my experiences in hopes that other people will realize that there is no one "right" way to be a man or to be masculine. Oh but I also enjoy music, anime, video games, technology in general, and lots of other things too so they will be coming along for the ride. If you need to get up with me just drop a line at dannybois-dot-corner-at-gmail.com.